Valentine's Day
by A. K. Coxon
Summary: It's Valentine's Day at Hogwarts. Ron has forgotten, Harry is pining over Ginny and Hermione is planning.
1. Forgetting and Regretting

It was Valentine's Day at Hogwarts, and an unfamiliar pink haze filled the castle. Little cherubs flew around in swarms, mischievously hitting people with heart shaped arrows and hearts were everywhere. Everyone at Hogwarts knew Valentine's Day was Professor Dumbledore's favorite holiday and he always made an extra effort to get people in to the spirit of the holiday of love.  
To Ron Weasley, Valentine's Day was the worst day of the entire year. Love hearts and weird kissing statuettes, plus all of the girls throwing themselves at guys at every turn, desperate not to be alone. This year, Ron wouldn't be alone. His girlfriend, Lavender Brown was expecting something special, something romantic and something he hadn't even organised. To top it all off, he was looking down at a present wrapped in pink tissue paper.  
"Come on then, open it!" Lavender demanded, clutching his arm and giggling, her curly hair bouncing around excitedly. Inside was a tag necklace that had 'Property of Lavender Brown' engraved on it. Ron groaned internally and let Lavender put it on him. She kissed his neck as she fastened the clasp and Ron grimaced. Hermione, who had just come down the stairs looked hurt and upset and quickly left the room."Ha! Good riddance to bad rubbish!" Lavender said, following Hermione with her head and placing her arms round Ron's shoulders. Ron didn't like Lavender talking about Hermione like that.

"Hermione? What's wrong?" Harry said, running after her as she ran out of the common room. She stopped in the library and sat down hastily. Madam Pince gave the pair a stern look as Hermione sobbed, but a sudden bouquet of flowers from a mystery admirer soon distracted her, brought in by a terrified first year. Harry smiled and knew they were from Filch, the school's caretaker who wanted the same thing that Madam Pince wanted: No children at Hogwarts at all. Even if they worked in a school and really had no choice.  
"Ha. Bet they are off Filch. What do you think?" Harry said, turning back to Hermione's sobbing form.  
"I think that I am the only one in the whole of Hogwarts who hasn't got a date today" she cried. Harry knew she had seen Ron and Lavender this morning.  
"What about me? Ginny's still with Dean you know. Imagine how I feel" Harry said, suddenly a little upset. Hermione looked up at his face, knowing that he was in exactly the same position as she was.  
"Oh yeah... Sorry Harry" Hermione whispered, feeling truly awful. She put her arm round his shoulders and placed her forehead to his. Harry appreciated this gesture but his stomach turned every time he thought of Ginny and her good for nothing boyfriend. He didn't deserve her at all.

The pink haze made Ron's head feel funny. The cherubs were annoying and his girlfriend was getting on his nerves. Did they really have to do the 'couples' thing? Walk the halls hand in hand while Lavender talked to random girls with their boyfriends in tow talking about how sweet their guy is. It was boring and tedious and he couldn't help the daydreams that bugged his brain.  
They were nothing out of the ordinary; apart from the day was Valentine's Day. It was Hermione on his arm, not Lavender as always. They weren't doing anything like he had to do with Lavender. They were in the library, being shushed and told off by Madam Pince for giggling and kissing. They were in the common room, Hermione hitting him with her hardback copy of "Hogwarts- A history" and telling him to stop being ridiculous as he just sat there laughing at her.  
A quick nudge in the ribs brought him back to reality. He was stood with Lavender on his arm, talking to Pavarti Patil and her boyfriend who looked as uncomfortable as Ron was.  
"Mm?" he said, not quite catching the last bit of their conversation.  
"What are you planning for today?" she asked suspiciously.  
"That would be telling" he said, tapping his nose and prising his hand out of her grasp. He turned and started walking, not really knowing where he was headed.  
"Where are you going? RON!" She shouted as he walked swiftly away.

"Do you want to go on this Hogsmeade trip? We can go to Zonko's or the three broomsticks?" Harry said. Hermione smiled and nodded. At least it couldn't be worse than staying here watching Ron dribble over Lavender. They started walking, just talking and laughing about Filch and Madam Pince, when someone yelled "Harry! Hermione!"  
Ron was running to catch up with them, his red hair blowing in the breeze as he desperately ran to get away from Lavender.  
"Hey" he said, slowing down and walking alongside Harry.  
"Hey. Having a nice Valentines?" Harry asked, half giggling.  
"Yeah. Not bad. Apart from my girlfriend has gone completely insane and I haven't planned anything yet"  
"You haven't planned anything?" Hermione said, trying to not talking to keep up her plan not to talk to him but not succeeding.  
"Nope" he said, taking a bite out of his many secret chocolate bars hidden in his blazer. Hermione rolled her eyes. Ron never ceased to amaze her. She thought about his predicament for a minute and then stepped in front of him. A flash of brilliance went through her brain.  
"I have an idea" she said, taking his wrist and turning a small surprised look to Harry, Ron was pulled away by Hermione who was in full on Hermione mode.  
She was so adorable though, so Ron decided to forgive her for being so bloody forceful.

"Hey" said a voice from Harry's left. Turning around, he saw that it was Ginny, all dressed up for a date with Dean. Harry's heart leaped and he tried to control his excitement. She sat down on the burgundy sofa right next to Harry and accidentally brushed his arm. Harry's heart was beating ten times fast. He folded the Daily Prophet and placed it on the table.  
"So... why aren't you with Dean?" he said, turning towards her.  
"Oh. Dean wanted to spend the day with Seamus as well as me and invited him to Hogsmeade, where we were only going to sit in the three broomsticks until the day was over. I told him where to stick his bloody dozen roses and box of bloody chocolates. I mean, why are guys such idiots? Are they really blind to what we are thinking?"  
"Not all guys are" Harry said.  
"What? Like you, you mean?" She asked playfully, brushing her long red hair behind her ear.  
"Yeah. You know, as the chosen one I'm pretty good with girls"  
Ginny started laughing.  
"You player" she said, pushing his arm playfully.  
"Oh yeah, that's me. I have to fight them off with a stick" he said, sweeping the common room with his hand to demonstrate the lack of girls.  
Ginny was doubled over with laughter. She eventually stopped laughing and looked back at Harry. He was just watching her laughing with a huge smile on his face.  
"You are not like other guys are you?"  
She lunged forwards and kissed him on the lips. Harry responded and pulled Ginny's head towards his. Ginny moved forwards until she was sat on his lap.  
"Oh my god" she said, pulling away.  
"What?" he said, placing his hands on her lower back to keep her on his lap.  
"I am a bad person" she said.  
Harry thought for a moment, loosening his grip on her back.  
"Do you really care?" he asked as Ginny bit her bottom lip.  
"Nope" she said, lunging forward again.


	2. Fistfuls of apology

p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%;""Hermione are you sure?" Ron said, unsure. She rolled her eyes./p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%;""Do you always have to doubt me?" she asked./p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%;""I wasn't, I was just wondering"/p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%;"Hermione and Ron were in the Hogwarts kitchens. The house elves had the day off because of Professor Dumbledore's Valentine's Day spirit. Hermione had a wicker picnic basket to her right and a stack of ingredients to her left. Ron had put on an apron and was now stood at Hermione's side, clueless./p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%;"Hermione sighed./p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%;"Men./p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%;""Can you help please?"/p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%;""Well, what do you want me to do?" he asked./p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%;""Just, measure out the ingredients for the cupcakes. Even you can't mess that up" she replied bitterly. Making all of this for Lavender was painful, but she didn't want to miss an opportunity to be with Ron in any way./p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%;"Hermione started to cut the fresh fruit when some flour hit her./p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%;""RON!" she said. Ron just shrugged and started to giggle. The flour covered the left side of her face and some of her brown hair./p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%;"Hermione wiped the flour off her face and went back to chopping an apple./p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%;"Ron's laughter started getting louder and louder until it began to become infectious. Hermione smiled./p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%;""Think that's funny do you Weasley? Take that!" She said, grabbing a handful of grapes and throwing them at Ron./p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%;"Ron smiled and retaliated with a fistful of caster sugar./p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%;"Hermione's hair fell out of its bun while her handful of butter hit Ron's thigh./p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%;"Ron gasped loudly and scooped up more flour./p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%;"The pair continued to fight with foods, throwing spoonfuls of icing and fists of cocoa powder, giggling./p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%;"***/p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%;""Ginny"/p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%;""Mmhmm?"/p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%;""Do you want to do something?" Harry asked, looking down at the top of Ginny's head. She had curled up next to him on the sofa and he had her tucked under his arm./p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%;""Like?"/p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%;""Like, we could have a candlelit meal in the Room of Requirement" Harry suggested./p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%;""That's so cliché" Ginny said, smiling. br /"Game of quidditch then?"/p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%;""Yep" Ginny said, getting up. The pair got up and walked to the quidditch pitch hand in hand, past caring about other people's opinions./p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%;""Ok, Ok. Truce?" Ron said, grabbing Hermione's wrists./p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%;""Alright then" Hermione said, pushing herself into Ron and hugging him around the waist./p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%;"Ron held back for a few moments, shocked that the girl he loved was hugging him. He then put his arms around her and put his chin on her head./p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%;""I'm sorry, Mione"/p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%;""Me too. I'm really stubborn sometimes"/p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%;""Don't worry, I'm the same." Ron said./p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%;""It's just Lavender. I really don't like her. She's just mean"/p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%;""Yeah, I know, but she's just insecure"/p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%;"Hermione pulled away from Ron and stared for a minute./p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%;""Let's get this done then" she says, turning away and waving her wand so all the mess cleared up and new ingredients appeared in clear glass bowls./p  
p style="margin-bottom: .14in; line-height: 115%;" /p 


End file.
